Busy days...

Now is about the time that I usually say I need more hours in every day.... November and December goes by in a heart-beat, and I say that every year as well.

Having an eight-month-old puppy in the house adds to the work, and I sometimes stop and ask myself what I was doing before Savannah came into our lives. I was reading more, for one thing... at least one or two books a week. Now I'm lucky to be reading one book every two weeks. My to-read shelf of books is waiting, waiting, waiting. Oh well... those books will be there when I'm ready for them. Right now, we're still on puppy time in this house, but as Savannah gets older, her schedule will be less demanding, which will make my own schedule more 'my own.'

Our big Christmas party is this weekend, so I've been getting ready for that. Not much to do now... I will set up the tables tomorrow so all I will have to do on Saturday is get the food ready and then polish my nails. That's another thing that has gone by the wayside during puppy-time.... my nails aren't always polished these days, unless you count a clear-coat, which doesn't count as 'polish' to me.

I spent half of yesterday afternoon and most of this morning putting up Christmas lights outside. My husband usually does the outside lighting but he's been busy with dental appointments and work, and he never even mentioned the Christmas lights. So I got out the boxes of lights (more of them than I thought we had) and the step-stool came out, and there I was outside, stringing lights around the gazebo and along the porch railings. If I do say so myself, it looks very nice, considering that I really don't like doing those lights, but I thought it would be a nice surprise for my husband when he gets home tonight. (He surprised me with Manilow tickets, I'm surprising him with Christmas lights. Not exactly an even trade.)

With all the Christmas sales going on now, I've been finding more gifts for the Christmas Grab-Bag... so those are wrapped up already and in a box marked for next year's Christmas party. (Never too early to start planning next year's party.)

Our only department store in town has been sending out sales coupons and I was in there today looking at shoes... summer shoes are already out on the shelves, or maybe they're last summer's leftovers. All I do know is that they had really nice ones on sale, and then you got another 30% off with the coupon. I bought a nice pair of summer walking shoes and when I got home the little security tag was still on one of them... which means I have to go back there to have the tag taken off. Just what I didn't want to do... be in that department store next week when it will really be busy.

However.... that's just a little blip in the universe, which is what I'm saying about mostly everything these days. One of my Chicago cousins is undergoing extensive physical therapy so he can learn how to walk and talk and move around at will.... the side-effects of a massive stroke.  So every little hiccup in my day gets compared to what Paulie is going through... and of course there is no comparison.

All the things we do every day that we take for granted... going from one room to another, making a phone call, walking the dog, being able to pick up a fork and eat eggs for breakfast... simple little things that we all do without so much as a teeny thought. All of that, and more, was taken away from my cousin. In a split second, his life (and his wife's) was forever changed.

We all need to count our blessings. Especially at this time of the year.